Meet Maryland’s Most Annoying Robocallers

MARYLAND — Few things are as irritating as seeing your phone buzz, picking it up and realizing it's a robocall, where someone is trying to trick you into giving up your bank and credit card information. With tax season coming up, you can expect even more of those calls to waste your time.

A record 5.2 billion robocalls were placed last month, according to YouMail's robocall index, and 58 percent of them were scam or telemarketing calls. That includes 123.8 million robocalls in Maryland, an average of 14.9 for every person in the state.

Here are the top 20 robocallers in Maryland last month, showing the number, place of origin if known, the carrier, the caller ID and the type of call. They include legitimate debt collectors, a mortgage company, and one school district, along with spammers.

1.
410-222-5000
Baltimore, MD
Verizon Wireless
Anne Arundel County Schools
Unknown Robocaller
2.
443-602-8540
Baltimore, MD
Bandwidth.com CLEC, LLC
Spammer
Prison Call Consent
3.
800-955-6600
Toll Free
Toll Free
Capital One Payments/Collections
Debt Collector
4.
888-423-0900
Toll Free
Toll Free
Verizon Information Line
Customer Call
5.
443-305-9242
Baltimore, MD
Bandwidth.com CLEC, LLC
Generic Robocaller
Generic Robocaller
6.
877-647-8552
Toll Free
Toll Free
Wells Fargo
Debt Collector
7.
240-249-2566
Baltimore, MD
Bandwidth.com CLEC, LLC
Generic Robocaller
Generic Robocaller
8.
888-222-4227
Toll Free
Toll Free
Santander
Debt Collector
9.
301-690-1207
Baltimore, MD
Local Access LLC
Insurance Depar
Unknown Robocaller
10.
301-690-1208
Baltimore, MD
Local Access LLC
+13016901208
Unknown Robocaller
11.
888-393-7162
Toll Free
Toll Free
Bill Me Later
Credit Card Debt Collector
12.
443-960-7322
Baltimore, MD
Twilio
BURNIE MD GLEN
Unknown Robocaller
13.
801-877-1122
Salt Lake City, UT
Onvoy, LLC
Kristy Mcmurray
Unknown Robocaller
14.
301-355-9389
Baltimore, MD
Ymax Communications
+13013559389
Unknown Robocaller
15.
855-895-3382
Toll Free
Toll Free
Fingerhut
Debt Collector
16.
734-521-2063
Detroit, MI
Level 3 Communications
Credit Acceptance
Financial Customer Call
17.
240-745-8085
Baltimore, MD
Local Access LLC
High risk
Unknown Robocaller
18.
800-678-7986
Toll Free
Toll Free
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
Loan Payment Reminder
19.
240-745-8086
Baltimore, MD
Local Access LLC
DEPAR INSURANCE
Unknown Robocaller
20.
800-266-2278
Toll Free
Toll Free
Comcast Customer Service/Bill Collector
Debt Collector

YouMail's index showed that residents in Baton Rouge were bombarded with robocalls last month, ranking No. 1 in the country, with a staggering 58.4 robocalls per person. Washington, D.C. residents saw the second-highest number of calls, at 51.6. Here are the 10 cities receiving the most calls per person in January:

1. Baton Rouge, LA — 58.4 robocalls per person
2. Washington, D.C. — 51.6 robocalls per person
3. Memphis, TN — 42.3 robocalls per person
4. Macon, GA — 37.4 robocalls per person
5. Lafayette, LA — 33.3 robocalls per person
6. Little Rock, AR — 33.3 robocalls per person
7. Birmingham, AL — 31.5 robocalls per person
8. Albany, GA — 31.5 robocalls per person
9. Las Vegas, NV — 31.2 robocalls per person
10. Shreveport, LA — 30.9 robocalls per person

YouMail says the nationwide rise coincides with a "search listing scam," where robocallers dupe small business owners into giving up credit card information. The scammer promises to boost the business' ranking in Google search listings.

And with more and more tax filers sending their returns to the IRS, don't expect scam robocalls to decline anytime soon.

In fact, a new report from the data communication network company Transaction Network Services found that April 17, 2018 — Tax Day — saw more negative robocalls than any other day of the year. That month saw the highest volume of the year. The researchers noted that call spoofing — when scammers change their caller ID so they match your area code — remains the go-to tactic for bad actors. One in every 4,000 phone numbers was hijacked by a spoofer, the company found.

Bill Versen, chief product officer at the company, said consumers need to be "especially vigilant" as Tax Day approaches, and keep their guard up.

The FCC offers a few tips for those wanting to stop unwanted and illegal robocalls. Among them, don't answer calls from unknown numbers, do not respond to questions — especially those that can be answered with "yes" — and never give out personal information such as account numbers, Social Security numbers and mother's maiden names.

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Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Photo credit: Shutterstock